Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs

This is the third album from Klô Pelgag, the short pet name for Chloé Pelletier-Gagnon, a Québécoise singer-songwriter. While Pelgag’s music is sweeping and epic, it takes the time to consider a multiplicity of approaches, emotionally and musically. Anglophone listeners might detect a bit of Kate Bush in the vocals, especially on “À l’ombre des cyprès”. Released during the pandemic, the richness of these songs fills the spaces required by social distancing and expresses the emotions that isolation can create. “For a year and two days I’ve been loving you, and when you return I will have long hair,” she sings in “J’aurai les cheveux longs”, a representative sample from an album that is a magnificent introduction to a tremendous talent.